The Generosity of Haruhi Suzumiya
by KDanji
Summary: Being chosen by God will change your life. One man knew this from experience. When you are the second one chosen by God, your results may vary. When another man foolishly takes the generous hand of God, his life will plummet to hell. ...And back.
1. God's Generosity

She loudly paced the floor in front of me as I sat stuck to the chair, still unable to free myself. The heavy, incessant, tapping footsteps, which hit the floor in a rhythm annoyingly uneven to the clock ticking in the room, started to add to the huge migraine I had since a few hours ago. Though, finally, after several minutes, she stopped. My head pains were given mercy, much to my relief, but not for more than five small seconds. The girl turned towards me and began to speak in a loud, stern, professional, yet immensely annoying voice, which made me, once again, wince from the pain it bombarded to the center of my head. Despite my aches and my great objection to even cooperating with this girl, I replied accordingly.

"Name!"

"…Ramura Hidan."

"Age!"

"15."

"Blood type?"

"Err-"

"-Gender!"

"…Do you seriousl-"

"-Welcome to the brigade, new loyal recruit! Your first objective shall be the rigorous task of cleaning duty! You shall mop the entire floor without leaving so much as an atom-sized speck that hasn't been wetted and dried, or you'll face high punishment!"

At this point, my head ached so much that I was almost in tears. My eyes were tightly shut, and I had a great need to rub the sides of my head with my fingers to suppress the pain, but I didn't have the luxury of moving my hands at that moment.

"Anyway, it's getting dark, so I'm going home. See you tomorrow, new-guy!"

The girl tossed the mop in my direction, accurately planting it on my face before beginning to leave the room with her things. She slammed the door shut upon exit, as if merely to deliver a finishing blow to my migraine. Now I was alone in a dark room of an abandoned high school, long after school hours. While my classmates might've been enjoying dinner, I only had the option of sucking on the mop in my face. Thankfully, it was silent now, but there was a more serious matter at hand. I had a wet mop in my face, I was in cuffs, and I still couldn't escape from the room, much less the chair I sat in. All I could do was let out a deep sigh of relief from my head pain, my voice being muffled by the mop, which actually had a nice lemony scent if you sniffed past the smell of ass surrounding that.

…

This, the beginning of the end of my life, all happened thanks to my mistake of taking the first few fatal steps into this god-forsaken school. …Rather, the school cursed by the hands of god himself. …Or herself, and I'm not just trying to be politically correct.

"Ramura Hidan. Fairly competent student. Tendency to laze. Habit of indecent comments. Accused, but not proven of voyeurism…" This paper, amazingly detailed by my eccentric past teachers, was read to me as I was in a chair opposite from a faculty member in his desk in a dim room lit only by the large open window to the left of me projecting the morning daylight.

"I swear to you, those are jokes. My teachers-"

"-Ah, I don't mind those silly notes. Anyway, you came from Osaka? I've personally never been there, but I have good friends from there."

His eyes suddenly squinted at me.

"You don't seem to have an accent..."

I was asked this countless times throughout my life. My parents, who obviously taught me how to speak, weren't Osaka natives. Therefore, I don't speak like any Osaka man. Explaining this, somehow, took some time to do whenever I tried, so I stayed silent to save the trouble.

"Well, why would it matter, right?"

When he said this, he had a friendly smile on his face, though from my past experiences, I was able to identify this as a typical manufactured smile that any person would wear while making small talk with a stranger. The faculty member continued to skim through some more of my records for a while. In this time, I found myself almost slouching, and tried to cover a yawn while he was still flipping through papers. After what seemed like an entire ten minutes, he finally set them down and looked back at me with his smile again.

"Well, I personally welcome you to the school and hope that you enjoy it here, Ramura-san. North High is a fine school, in my opinion. We have a colorful student body, the food here's alright; you'll have a pleasant time for the remainder of this year."

After spending some time at this school, I just almost started to agree with what he said. There sure was a very colorful student body. The cafeteria food was much more than bearable. Though, those two things didn't necessarily help towards giving me a particularly pleasant time. In fact, it was about the same as the school I attended before, just twice as tedious and boring. I wanted to go home more than I ever had at any school.

The week slowly passed at an annoyingly slow, crawling pace. When it ended, I finally got to the point of being agitated by the peaceful, yet more so painfully uneventful working atmosphere. It was still only the start of my second week here as a mid-year transfer, Monday, and I felt like I was at an office desk job. I leaned forward into my desk with my head almost buried in my arms on the surface in front of me as the school day concluded. Transferring is supposed to be exciting. New schools are supposed to have a fresh feeling. Though, this school wasn't so distinguishable from any other, despite what that faculty member said. I thought that I'd finally get past the monotony in my life, but I began to think that it was impossible. I once again thought the one thing that I always thought every now and then: Maybe this is just the punishment for growing to be a lazy, pessimistic asshole, but the asshole gear in my brain denied that, as always. Other than stare outside the window, stare at girls, and argue with and overanalyze myself, there was nothing to do in this pale, tasteless school.

School clubs? Filled.

Student council? Work.

Sports teams? As if I'm an athlete.

And it took me little time to realize that "colorful student body" obviously meant shallow, superficial heap of angsty puberty victims. Seriously, the next time I hear-

"I need your help, so-and-so-chan! What pair of panties should I wear for so-and-so-kun tonight?"

-I will break someone's arm! Why doesn't anyone do that sort of thing for me?!

This place sucks! It's so damn boring here!

…

I suddenly realized that I made the dire mistake of saying that out loud.

"Hi there!"

The most cheerful, loud, brightly toned, yet somewhat annoying female voice I had ever heard demolished my wall of thoughts.

I looked up from the surface of my desk to where the voice came from. In front of my desk stood a girl with moderately short brown hair, a yellow ribbon clearing visible between her locks. I had to admit that she was kind of attractive, but there was something about her that repelled me. Something that just screamed "death" and "terror" that came from her bright, shining, golden eyes. In that sentence alone was the strangest collection of adjectives that was ever manufactured from my thoughts, an already apparent sign that this girl was dangerous. Suddenly walking up to her was a boy of darker brown hair and a lanky posture who had a strangely dour look on his face. He spoke to the girl as if he was her keeper.

"Haruhi, don't bother people at this time of day, please."

The girl quickly replied without redirecting her vision.

"Silence, Kyon, I'm busy recruiting!"

Recruiting? Is this for some club? The clubs I checked were filled, so this had to have been one of the many clubs on the list that I purposefully skipped over.

"Here, take it."

She gave me a piece of paper. It was a club advertisement flier covered with several different font types, a logo, and what seemed to be handwritten notes and terrible doodles. I read the text on it to myself… "The S.O.S. Brigade. Saving the world by Overloading it..." ...Eh?

"You appear interested."

I couldn't see how she came to that ridiculous conclusion from the retarded look I had on my face. The boy next to the girl tried to make her back off.

"Haruhi. You're mistaken. He clearly isn't interested. We don't need any more members either."

"What, Kyon? Do you fear that your position will be taken?"

I decided to speak up.

"...What do you guys do?"

Then the boy replied…

"We don't do anything in particular; it's incredibly boring-"

…Only to be cut off.

"Kyon! Anyone with enthusiasm for the brigade should fit right in!"

"He isn't showing any enthusiasm."

She and her companion began to argue.

"It's another mysterious transfer student! That's more than enough reason to recruit him!"

The boy sighed for a moment before attempting to continue.

"...But-"

"-Kyon, as chief, I'll handle further situations regarding this recruit myself."

I wasn't too sure about what to make of this. I tried to speak.

"Uh…-"

"-NO! Your life will end!"

…

The boy had suddenly gone out of his way and screamed this at me with a crazy look on his face. Every single student around us, including students from out in the hallway, were staring. This silence was suddenly broken by the sound of the furious impact of the girl's right palm meeting the boy's face.

"NGAH-!"

"Get a grip, Kyon! I'm taking him with me, no matter what!"

…A sentence that every boy wishes to hear from a girl, which in this context, struck fear to my conscience.

I was immediately pulled out of my desk and into the halls by my school uniform's necktie. When the boy finally recovered from the strike dealt to him seconds ago, he did his best to catch up with the two of us.

"Hey! Get back here! Haruhi!"

This had to have been further punishment for complaining about my boredom. I've been kidnapped by a highly possible mental illness case of a teenage girl. Considering her face and figure, most boys would consider this a gift from God, while I saw her as Heaven's executioner in a mere 81-50-83 centimeter guise. Don't ask how I'm able to accurately measure that so quickly while trying to catch up with a girl running at 22 kilometers per hour. "What will possibly happen next?" I asked myself. I had no idea, but I was sure there would be some factor of terror and or indecency to it. I decided to play along and follow her, though. But since she had me by my necktie with the grip of an iron fist, I had no other choice.

Eventually, we stopped at the door of the girl's clubroom. A piece of paper crudely taped to the plate above the door where the room number was supposed to be had "SOS Brigade" written on it with a black marker. The girl, still keeping a grip on my tie, kicked the door in, let go of my tie to put both her hands on my back, and pushed me inside. I lost my balance and had to grab on to a long table in the center of the room. Catching my breath, I looked up and scanned the room.

This clubroom looked rather plain at first, but was filled with some strange items. The table I used to catch myself had a stack of laptop computers sitting in the center. Behind the table in front of a window in the back of the room was a desk taken from a classroom. On that desk, were an expensive-looking LCD computer monitor, a mouse, and a keyboard, with the tower connected to everything sitting next to the front left leg of the desk. Next to the monitor was a slim black pyramid with "Chief" scribbled on it in white. Above a blackboard to the right of me was some sort of strange sun idol. Below the left side of the blackboard was a small table with a stove and tea kettle next to a tray of empty cups. Against the wall opposite of the blackboard was a bookshelf with various books. The particularly strange part, however, was the clothes rack of several girls' costumes that fit every otaku fetish imaginable standing next to a box of even more costume items behind a changing barrier. I couldn't help but think out loud,

"What the hell is this club for?!"

I suddenly turned towards the door as I heard the sound of it being locked. My heart rate rose and my adrenaline kicked in from this distinct noise. I looked at the tired, unhappy-looking boy getting locked outside after finally catching up with us, while the deranged girl turned towards me after locking the door from the inside.

"And what the hell is going on?!"

The girl responded to me,

"Simple, you've been captured and will be tortured severely unless you join our ranks under no conditions!"

…I actually laughed a little inside at this ridiculous response. On the outside, however, I kept an annoyed look on my face and a false aura of bravery. The boy outside of the room kept trying at the locked door for a while before giving up, putting his palm to his face, and collapsing below the window of the door. For getting locked inside a room alone with a girl, this was bad.

"So which will it be?"

I paused for a moment. What was this girl planning to do to me? Would I be able to help myself? Would I even live through this unharmed? Getting back to her question, instead of answering her, I had to ask,

"Why do you want me to join so badly?"

…And her answer?

"Answer the question that was stated to you!"

How much I suddenly wanted to punch her in the face at that moment was impossible to describe.

"Screw you! I'm not joining no matter what you say or do. You're insane! Now let me lea-"

"-Very well!"

She must've not been the type to respond to bravado, as she lunged at me, and angrily grabbed my collar. Without thinking, I had grabbed her left arm that held me to try and get her to loosen her grip.

…

"Unhand me…"

…Amazingly, it was not I who said this, but the girl named Suzumiya.

"Like hell I am! You let go of ME!"

Without realizing, I had just signed away my dignity. This physically violent girl readied her right arm and threw a furious straight haymaker punch. Fortunately, I ducked since she let go of my collar, probably wanting me to fall back on the table from her punch; but with all of the force that she contributed to that punch she threw, her entire body moved with her fist.

…

My face had collided with her chest. …Her 81 centimeter bust. A typical shonen manga trope that has less of a chance of occurring in real life than winning the lottery, or dying on the toilet, or being struck by lightning, all at the same time. This would be yet another blessing to an average boy, but in my situation, it wasn't so much of a blessing. The hit was broad and heavy; likely more so than what her punch would've been like. At that moment, the worst moment to have done this, I fell unconscious. Destroying what little pride I had left, I had unwittingly lost the only physical altercation I'd probably ever had in my life with a girl, or with anyone for that matter, without even receiving so much as a single strike, from a hand or foot at least. It'd only be worse if I had died. Actually, maybe it'd be better…

"High School Student Murdered, Killed by Breasts"

…Scratch that.

…And this was only the beginning to a long and tiring series of my misadventures with the most deranged club in any high school in existence.


	2. God's Hospitality

"Kyon! Kyon, get in here! I think I killed him!"

…

*sigh*

"He's still alive."

…

I awoke in a painful daze to the sight of a white ceiling and the ticking noise of a clock, while I was apparently resting in a chair. When I tilted my head down to see what was in front of me and where I was, I saw the boy who was called Kyon, who sat atop the long table in the club room. Through the window behind him, the sun was setting, giving the dark room a dim, eerie glow. I'm still in school, and I'm already annoyed by that fact alone. Kyon took his resting chin off of his hand and straightened up his back, noticing that I had come to, and asked before I tiredly answered.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"My head hurts like hell. The pain is slowly killing me and I want to die already. Kill me now."

He sighed.

"Not much damage, I guess."

"I'm serious."

"…Wipe the drool off of your face."

…I actually did feel drool below the corner of my mouth. I began to raise my arm to my face to wipe it off with my sleeve.

"…"

This was when I heard the clinking of small metal chains. I realized that my hands were cuffed behind the chair the entire time. No wonder I was able to stay in the chair the whole while. Kyon seemed to ignore this, though, since he continued.

"I don't have the slightest idea why, but she still insists on making you join the club."

…

"But, why the hell did I need handcuffs?!"

I asked this, trying, and failing to yell clearly due to my headache. Kyon answered me.

"She didn't want you to escape, she said. I had nothing to do with any of this, believe me."

He hopped to the floor from his seat on the table and began to walk towards the door.

"And where do you think you're going?!"

He stopped halfway to the door and slightly turned his head towards me.

"She wanted to have a private chat with you. Don't worry; it has nothing to do with when she almost killed you. She said she didn't care about that anymore."

Kyon continued to leave as the girl came in holding a mop in her left hand. She seemed as aggravated as me while she walked into the room, but once she stopped in front of my chair, her face lightened up with a unique, evil smile.

"I don't believe I've properly introduced myself to you yet. I'm Suzumiya Haruhi..."

She magnificently struck the floor with the end of the mop as if it was a flag. The water from the mop's head somehow splattered me on the right side of my face.

"...the great leader of the SOS Brigade!"

...

And that was the beginning of the end of my life. Now I'm completely alone in the school building with only a smelly mop in my face to keep me company, my hands in cuffs behind a chair, and a headache which has only just begun to fade away. I could only wait for the sun to set outside the window, and I wasn't even able to watch it while a thick, wet, collection of yarns obscured my frontwards view and saturated my face. I had no energy to do much movement in order to shake the mop from my face or grab the mop's neck with my feet. When I attempted the former, the mop stuck to my face anyway. All I was able to do was listen to the endless ticking of a clock in the room.

After waiting a while before thinking again, it's maybe been only roughly five minutes since I was left alone in the room. Though, when you're in a situation like this, five minutes feels like fifteen. Half of the thoughts I currently had were scared thoughts, fear of dying in that room, dying in that school, and the other half was of my desperate need to viciously murder Suzumiya. I had gone off the deep end of my humanity at this point, and only five minutes and fifty-six seconds of my solitude had passed. I kept struggling to break the cuffs like a monster, a monster that could only be spawned from the increasingly painful mind-screwing torture which was Suzumiya Haruhi.

...

I suddenly heard footsteps outside of the hall. They grew louder and closer. I was definitely ready to piss my pants from fear. Louder and louder the sound grew until I finally heard the noise of the doorknob rattling, and the sound of the door opening. I just had to keep my cool. I assumed spirits would get especially vicious if you showed fear. Keep my cool, keep my cool…

"Please kill me quickly and painlessly, spirit. I atone for my sins and regret nothing."

"I am no apparition, or any type of incarnation of paranormal phenomena you may be suggesting."

It was the deadpan-toned voice of a girl around my age. Out of the corner of my eye which wasn't covered by the mop, I saw a girl of short stature. She seemed younger, but wore the school's uniform. I couldn't see her face too clearly.

"That's good, then. Please unlatch these handcuffs and let me leave?"

The girl walked behind my chair and took my hands. She spread out the fingers of my right hand and placed something in it. Feeling the shape of it, it was a small key.

"The next club meeting is tomorrow during after-school hours."

I heard the sound of footsteps leave the room. The door wasn't shut this time. She didn't even bother to free me herself; much less remove the mop from my face.

This was some sort of cruel, insane, and coldhearted joke. It had to be. There was nothing about this that made any sense. I took a moment to ignore the ridiculousness and attempt to free myself.

I dropped the key. The clinking noise of metal hitting the hard floor and the loss of the feeling of an object in my hands assured me it. How wonderful.

...

Only after exactly sixty seconds, the girl came back into the room to put the key back in my hand.

"Please refrain from losing your grip."

She still didn't seem like she would free me herself. The girl left the room once again.

…

I think I did it. I tugged on one of the handcuff latches. It gave and my left hand was free.

"YES!"

I yelled triumphantly, my voice muffled by the mop in my face for the final time. I unlatched the cuff on my right hand, angrily snatched the mop from my face, stood up from the chair so furiously that it skidded back, and threw the mop at the wall, snapping its neck in half. The mop's head began to make a thin puddle on the floor rather than on my face. I dropped the cuffs and key on the long table, now realizing that my bag was still in class. It'll have to stay there overnight this time. I went straight home, choosing not to mop as I was commanded earlier. I was far too angry at the moment to subject to orders, especially Suzumiya's. Let the janitor do it, whenever he or she works. It's not like Suzumiya would be able to notice. Screw Suzumiya Haruhi. I was lucky that the doors and school gate were still unlocked as I left. I could only thank God.

The next day, Tuesday, I was resting on my desktop as classes ended like the day before. I remembered that the girl who gave me the handcuff key last evening said that there was a meeting to get to now. I wondered about whether or not I should go.

…

Well, it shouldn't be hard to decide. I'm going straight home. I took my bag and left my desk.

As I took the first two steps out the classroom door, I felt a sudden tug on my necktie. My walking path was redirected.

"Thought you were going to escape?"

Suzumiya Haruhi asked me this with my tie in her grip again.

…

I was once again thrown into the club room. Instead of grabbing onto the edge of the table, I noticed that I grabbed onto a chair. There was another chair which I didn't notice yesterday now at the end of the long table in front of the door. I guessed it was my seat. From where I was standing, seated on the left side of the long table from the back towards me was Kyon and another boy who had slightly longer light brown hair and a content smile. On the right towards the back was the girl that gave me that handcuff key, who merely sat there while reading a paperback book, not noticing that I was forced into the room. As I pulled the chair out and sat down, another petite girl, who still seemed to be about my age with long hair, wearing a simple maid's dress, held a round platter of tea, from which she served me a cup. Taking a shameless look at her as I do most girls, "petite" probably wasn't as appropriate of a word to describe her with as was "voluptuous", or "hot damn, fine", "specially engineered jailbait", et cetera. I stopped myself before I gave any more reason for me to be sent to hell.

"Hello there. Please have some tea while it's still hot."

She said this to me, went to put up the tray, walking with little steps, and then sat down next to the girl on the right side of the table. Suzumiya went behind the desk in the back of the room, still standing up. She began to speak, raising a hand directed at me.

"This is our new club member, Ramura Hidan."

So she's nice enough to introduce me to everyone…

"That is all."

…I was amazed that I didn't anticipate that.

She suddenly walked away from the desk and left the room with a slam of the door. Well, she didn't remember the mopping issue, not surprisingly. Seconds later, the boy sitting next to Kyon spoke to me.

"Good afternoon, I'm Koizumi Itsuki. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ramura-san. I also transferred here not too long ago. What city did you come from?"

"Osaka."

I answered in a polite tone. This person had to be the most well mannered student I'd come across at this school.

"Hmm, you don't really have an accent…"

The maid-girl who pointed this out was only the third or fifth person from this school who told me this. She spoke again.

"Ah! I'm so sorry that I didn't introduce myself first. I'm Asahina Mikuru. How is the tea?"

I never really liked the taste of hot tea, but I tried it anyway to be polite.

…

This was actually really good. This is the first drink of tea I've ever enjoyed that wasn't iced, lemon-flavored, or canned.

"It's delicious… You're really good at brewing tea."

"Thank you, I'm really glad you like it."

She gave the most amazingly cute smile as she said this. I assumed that Kyon seemed to really favor the girl from the way his face warmed up with a smile from her being happy about the tea. The girl was attractive, in several ways, but not enough for me to want to take her from someone who's probably known her for much longer than I have. But just, damn…

I then looked to the silent girl who was reading since I got here. She lowered her book right after I turned my head towards her direction and introduced herself as well.

"My name is Nagato Yuki. Welcome to our club."

She said this with a tone of voice that was completely void of personality, just like last time. Maybe she just doesn't sleep well? Nagato quickly went back to reading her book after speaking. Kyon spoke up all of a sudden.

"Try to excuse Haruhi for anything she does that might offend you. She doesn't really mean it. …Most of the time."

I then continued to wonder, what the hell was this club for? Computers, tea, and a rack of female costumes in the room could only guide me to inclusions such as an otaku club… or a cross-dressing otaku club.

"What is this club for, really?"

Kyon looked like he was about to reply, but stopped himself. It's as if he realized that the reason for this club was too questionable to mention, but he was able to give an answer.

"We never really plan anything for the club. When we're not hanging out in the club room, we may just hang out somewhere else in the city, for whatever the occasion may be."

He took a sip of tea before continuing.

"I guess you should just come here every day with something you feel like doing for the afternoon; a book to read, like Nagato here, a game, maybe a music player, but with headphones or something. We're going to try to…"

Kyon did that weird pause of evaluating what he was about to say again.

"…buy a laptop computer for you for tomorrow, so you can probably bring a computer game. Maybe Koizumi and I will join since we received LAN cables for multiplayer when we… bought these computers."

I didn't know why he kept pausing before saying "bought" as if they stole the things. I decided to let it go.

"…Alright, sure."

There wasn't much else to do or say that day. I slowly finished my cup of tea and went home before the others.

I entered the club room again after classes ended the next day. There was indeed a fifth laptop sitting in the stack on the long table. While everyone else seemed to be absorbed into what they were doing, Nagato reading her book, Kyon and Koizumi playing a classic card game, I took a computer off of the top of the stack. Walking to my seat, I set the laptop down in front of my end of the table, but then I noticed something about it.

…

There was this dark red stain on the top. …A bloodstain? No way, it's probably just spilt juice… or bean-paste. Asahina walked over to greet me with a cup of tea then noticed the stain on the laptop. She let out a small, terrified scream for some reason.

"Eh~! I'll clean that up, now!"

She quickly grabbed a bottle of cleaning solution and a rag. Asahina frantically tried to scrub off the stain until there was nothing left. It was just a food stain, why was she being so paranoid? Unless… That really was a bloodstain…?

"Erm… Asahina-san? Do you know what Suzumiya did to get this computer?"

She finished cleaning and suddenly looked more worried.

"Ah, uh, c-classified information!"

I could only imagine how this computer was obtained. Putting that matter aside, I took a CD case and a headset out of my bag. I had taken Kyon's advice and brought a game that I hadn't been able to touch in a while. Koizumi, who was only drinking tea after apparently losing his card game, had noticed.

"You brought a computer game?"

"Yeah."

"Does it have multiplayer?"

"It does; it's a first-person shooter."

Koizumi responded while grabbing a computer as Kyon started to look up in interest.

"I'm not really good at shooting games, but if you don't mind, I'll play too, Ramura-san."

Seeing that I wasn't going to play alone, I put up the headset. I'm sure no one will mind the game noises very much. Koizumi and I hooked up our computers. I had to quickly install the game onto both computers before we began. It was a simple FPS with the theme of surviving a zombie outbreak, generic, but fun. The story mode isn't very exciting, but the online and multiplayer modes make up for it. The most basic multiplayer mode was a simple zombie survival mode. Koizumi and I tried that mode while Kyon observed Koizumi's screen.

"This seems simple enough. I might not have very good reaction time as these games need, though, so please bear with me, Ramura-san."

He got the hang of it, but the bastard usually ran away whenever there was an ambush or threw flash grenades into my view. Though, it was his first time, so I tried not to complain. Kyon became interested and looked like he would give it a try, grabbing a computer off of the stack.

"I think I'll join too."

Strangely, even Asahina thought of joining too when Kyon expressed his interest…

"Well, if Kyon-kun thinks it looks fun, I might try-"

…but was frightened at the glimpse of the graphics which included blood, gore, numerous corpses, and grotesque zombies.

"-Ah~! Nevermind! I'm sorry!"

And so, it became a 3-man game. There were now slightly more video game noises with three computers running at once as the match became more intense. Asahina, being polite, didn't ask us to turn down the volume, but instead, tried to fend off and unhear the noises of death and gunfire by herself while assuming a halfway-fetal position as the game went on. Nagato only concentrated on her book, not minding the game noises.

…

Suzumiya seemed to be the most interested out of everyone that wasn't playing, or rather the only one that was interested at all out of the three girls; though, she merely observed. Soon enough, she took my game disc, amazingly installed it on the desktop computer by herself in seconds, and returned the disc before linking her desktop to the rest of the machines. I expected someone like her to yell and cheer incessantly during gameplay, but like the other three players in the now 4-man survival game, she played silently.

Suzumiya just looked completely hooked on the game from the way her eyes never moved from the screen. I couldn't describe it in any further detail. I've had this game for a few months, so I couldn't really relate to her.

...

After maybe an hour or two of four-player, we all stopped and finally left school after a long club day, walking on the hillside path home. No one said much on the way home. Suzumiya seemed to be deep in thought about the game, being completely silent with a perplexed look on her face and her arms crossed the entire way. After we split up and went our separate ways home, the rest of day just flew by as usual. I turned in to my bed at the end of a normal evening, never expecting what was going to happen the next day.

I woke up, but my clock hadn't even rung yet. It was still dark, so I must've just woken up really early. I checked the time to make sure.

…The clock was blank.

I checked my watch next to my clock. It was blank as well. I tried turning on the TV in my room. The remote wouldn't work. I then jumped out of bed, ran to my window, and opened the curtains to look out the window.

…

It was dark, but something was strange. The sky was red, there was blood everywhere, the light posts were turned off, and some of them looked broken. I even glimpsed at a corpse in the street.

Something was terribly wrong…


	3. God's Fantasy

Someone was suddenly banging on my bedroom door. The mere sound shocked me awake from my drowsiness. I knew that I locked the front door tightly as always, so I couldn't imagine how someone got in; I didn't dare move towards the door. Already in fear of the horrific sight outside the window and knowing someone broke in, I was crouching with my back against the wall below the window of my room, which glowed red from the color of the sky outside.

…

For 3 seconds, the noise stopped. It was completely silent.

…

My door had suddenly shattered into splinters with a huge crashing noise. A creature had burst through. Without needing to think about it for more than a second, I realized that it was a zombie.

I actually made a loud gasp from shock, followed by what was almost a scream. I didn't even dare to blink at the terrifying sight of a real, deadly zombie. This was much different from the game that I played yesterday; I could smell the creature's foul stench, hear its rattling moan, and very soon, I would feel its painful bite. You could always merely imagine how you would encounter a supernatural creature such as this. Maybe you'd think that because you enjoy that kind of thing, you wouldn't be so frightened once you see one. You'd think wrong. When reality rams you in the face with the force of a freight train like now, it's ironic how wrong you were, especially when it involves things like zombies and ghosts which could easily kill you like in stories. I would much rather be playing the game or reading stories about such things than going through the real thing. Actually, I may never touch that game or any other piece of material on the subject again.

…The game…

Maybe… I get it now. Somehow I'm inside the world of that game. The scene outside the window was exactly identical to the game, as well as the look of the zombie in front of me. My first thought was that this had to be a dream. It felt so real, but it could be just a lucid dream. Though, after having all of my five senses triggered by the mere presence of a single creature, I abandoned that theory.

"AH!"

I jumped up with a short scream when I felt blood suddenly splatter on my face. It came from the body of the zombie. Someone behind it fired a gun to its head.

The creature fell forward, starting to make a puddle on my bedroom floor. Wiping the blood off of my face, I tilted my head up from the felled corpse of the zombie to the short figure at my doorway. It was Nagato Yuki in a kevlar vest and metal armor pads over a suit, armed with a rifle, saving me for the second time. The gear made her look like some sort of covert-ops, special armed forces soldier. She looked down at me and tossed me a handgun with a holster.

"It would aid your situation to follow me. Don't fall behind."

I picked up the gun and holster to begin following her out of my home. Walking down the stairs and towards the front door, my home seemed normal and unchanged, aside from a few cracked windows. The scene was much different, though, when we went outside. It was just like what I saw outside my window, plus more: broken windows, broken cars, cracked pavement, blood everywhere, no people besides dead corpses, and no light other than the glow of a dark crimson sky, just like in the game, as well as in almost any zombie horror movie. Still in shock from the previous encounter, I found myself frantically aiming my handgun into empty spaces every time we turned a corner or passed an alley. After walking a little farther than a quarter mile, staying behind Nagato, I saw the silhouette of a group of people standing at a street corner. When we neared closer, I noticed that I knew these people. It was the other four members of the school club, dressed in gear like Nagato. …But why was the entire club here?

"What the hell is going on here?!"

I asked this question, and was silently ignored. Koizumi, instead of answering, crouched down to reach into a huge metal crate on the ground. He tossed me a suit, vest, pads, boots, and gloves, all of which were the same as what everyone else was wearing. I quickly pulled the gear over my loose clothes which I slept in, still confused as to what was happening. I strapped on the holster with the handgun inside and went up to the metal crate to see what else was stored in it. The crate was full of combat equipment, all of the weapons and items you would find in that game I brought yesterday, ammo, guns, first-aid kits, you name it. I grabbed an automatic rifle out of the crate and some ammo clips for my rifle and handgun. After suiting up, I had to ask everyone again.

"Do any of you know what happened after yesterday that made the town end up like this?"

Kyon was the first of the group to speak.

"Just don't think about it."

Though I was calmed down of fear due to the armed company I had, I still felt confused and left out of the entire situation. Every member of the club gave me the same stern look, except for Suzumiya Haruhi, who was paying more attention to her rifle with a fascinated look on her face. Koizumi pulled back the bolt of a sniper rifle he was armed with and requested to Suzumiya,

"I suggest that we start moving."

"Sure, sure."

Suzumiya casually replied in agreement as if we were still playing a game. I tried one more time to communicate. Thankfully, Koizumi was able to answer.

"Where are we heading to?"

"If you recalled one of the multiplayer options in that game you brought, you would know that we have to reach the city's power plant and attempt to repair and reactivate the city's power engulf the town with light, thus killing these infected creatures which succumb to bright light."

So I was right all along. We're all in the world of that video game; the reason why, I still didn't know. Since I had already tried asking that, and no one wanted to answer, I could only follow along with the rest of the group without complaining. It was better than risking the chance of dying. With Nagato, Suzumiya, and I armed with automatic rifles, Koizumi armed with a sniper rifle, Asahina armed with a single sub-machinegun, and Kyon armed with a shotgun, we headed towards the downtown area of the small city, the structure of which seemed to change dramatically overnight. The six of us traveled in a tight, organized group, still not making contact with any zombies, until Koizumi happened to spot a large horde that began to form up and charge at us from behind with great speed.

"Enemies at the rear! Keep running forward whilst firing!"

As if they had been specially trained in the military, the other five members of the group skillfully thinned out the relatively small zombie horde that was chasing us, feeding the mass of rotting undead with a torrent of bullets. When I began to fire my weapon, I realized that I harnessed this newfound skill as well. Nagato happened to have the superior skills, making headshots here and there. She would make better long-ranged shots with her automatic rifle than Koizumi with his sniper rifle. Soon, the horde was neutralized; the streets behind us were now scattered with more corpses than it used to have. I fell to the ground from loss of energy, never having to run so far in my life. It wasn't long before I was being scolded by Suzumiya, who was also catching her breath.

"We don't have time to rest! Suck it up and keep moving while we're still safe from zombies!"

With this demon of a girl slave driving me, now armed with a gun that seemed to be constantly pointed at whoever she yelled at, I had no choice but to bear it. During this trip, I would either die by the zombies' bite, or by Suzumiya's weapon, and I preferred not to have my life end with a shot from the latter.

We continued to trudge forward. The way everyone here was so emotionally stable most of the time had surprised me. Asahina Mikuru, someone I expected to be more timid than I was, was more focused than I'd ever imagine her to be. Nagato was still as emotionless as when I first met her, but now had a factor of deadliness while wielding a weapon. Suzumiya seemed to be filled with much excitement, the sort of excitement that I expected her to have while playing the video game rather than going through a real zombie apocalypse. Koizumi, instead of wearing the smile he had permanently attached to his face whenever he didn't speak since two days ago, had a more serious expression. Kyon looked as unhappy as he ever had been, just now with a hint that he was very alert. Surprisingly, I was the most timid member of the group. It was like this was something that they've been through several times. I couldn't imagine what was really running through their minds. These people just weren't normal.

A stable routine even occurred multiple times throughout our trip. Occasionally Asahina, with the strangely efficient eyesight she had at the time, would gasp then shout, "Over there!" signaling another zombie horde, to be followed by Suzumiya, the Rambo with a yellow ribbon, shouting, "They're all mine this time!" as splatters of blood and several bullet shells hit the ground. Nagato would look ahead of us and shoot down targets we couldn't even see yet. Koizumi, Kyon, and I would fire at the enemies Suzumiya missed.

Eventually, we ran out of most of our ammo and were forced to search buildings for more of it, like in the game. We found a large apartment complex that looked promising; we quickly ran inside, also to hide from the zombies outside. The place seemed like it was rotting. There was an unnerving stench in the air, spider webs and small bugs crawling about, ripped furniture and curtains, yet no trace of humans existing in the building. It was the most silent place that we had come across for the entire trip. We didn't hear the constant moaning of the dead like outside. We could barely hear our own footsteps, since each person walked carefully with a silent movement technique that I was surprised everyone knew of. While cautiously searching and clearing rooms, most of us found more ammo, and even grenades. It wasn't too long before I accidentally stepped on a loose, rotting floorboard and made a significantly audible noise. This was when everyone would, on instinct, turn and aim at wherever an enemy might pop out.

…

Only in a split second, a creature would appear, bursting through the ceiling from the floor above us along with some friends to be quickly shot down. After that engagement, we completely depleted our ammo supply, including the small bits that we recently scavenged.

"Shut up, dammit!" Suzumiya harshly whispered in my direction.

Now we had to be more cautious than ever. With not a single bullet to spare, we continued to search the building with only combat knives of defense. I discovered that my large combat knife was useful in picking locks, a fairly unrealistic feature brought over from the game. Finding a locked door, I picked at the lock with my knife and slowly pushed it open, making as little sound as I possibly could. Behind the door was another metal crate, just like from when we began our run. Opening it revealed several loaded ammo clips, first-aid, and repair tools.

"Everyone, there's ammo here."

The ammo clips and medical equipment were equally portioned and spread among the six of us. The purpose of the repair tools, though, had slipped my mind. Koizumi acknowledged these.

"We need that repair kit to aid our attempt to repair the systems at the power plant. It's fortunate that we found this."

Why does he suddenly knows more about this game than I do? I couldn't spend time being confused or annoyed by this due to the matter still at hand.

The group quickly left the building with the scavenged supplies and continued to move downtown towards the plant. Nearing our destination, our available paths began to branch out into multiple routes. Listening out for the distinct sounds of the hordes, we took the clear, zombie-free paths towards the power plant and eventually reached our destination without having to waste a bullet. It was a large, rusting building that cast a dark, dramatic shadow over the six of us, a clear sign that it was the end of our trip. Walking through the large metal doors, which were conveniently open, I saw that the building was barely lit, even with the red glow from the windows. You could only see the faint shapes of several large turbines planted on the floor, and two staircases against the walls leading to a large platform above filled with control panels which to my memory, were damaged and irreparable. I could clearly remember what we had to do at this point.

"We have to go to the third floor of this building and begin to make repairs to the control panels above in order to flip the switches to restart the city's power; but first, we'll have to face one large horde in this room, and then a boss in the next room on the second floor."

"And some more equipment is scattered around this floor and the second," Koizumi correctly added.

We began to search for any equipment that was scattered between the turbines. There were grenades, some extra clips of ammunition, but then we came across something new. It was a large, heavy-looking machinegun, which Suzumiya immediately noticed.

"I have to have this!"

"…Let me take it."

"Huh?"

Behind Suzumiya was Nagato, requesting that she'd carry the monstrous weapon over Suzumiya. The eager brown-haired demon's face had a disappointed look, but then brightened up in agreement.

"If Yuki really wants it… okay then! Put it to good use!"

Nagato unslung her rifle and placed it on the ground. Amazingly, with ease, she lifted the large weapon and faced Suzumiya.

"You look great, Yuki! Your small figure with that huge gun just goes so well together! Where's my camera…"

Kyon, taking his role as Suzumiya's supposed keeper, had to scold her.

"We have no time for that, we need to go."

"Fine, fine."

She picked up Nagato's gun, planning to dual wield the rifles.

"This feels much better anyway!"

Seeing that everyone was all set, the group ascended the staircases up to the raised platform. As everyone ran to the door that led to the staircase to the second floor, the sounds of a massive zombie horde began to emerge. I had forgotten while searching for weapons below.

"Here comes the final horde."

Nagato, wielding her large machinegun, volunteered to stay back.

"I choose to stay on this floor to give the rest of the team time to eliminate the boss."

"Wait!"

Kyon ran to Nagato's side, as a sign that he would help her.

"I'm helping her."

Asahina followed Kyon to join the group, making two even teams. Suzumiya looked like she wanted to stay back too, but Koizumi stopped her before she could say anything. She once again gave a disappointed look, but brightened up as she did before.

"Alright! The three of us will go kill the boss while the three of you stay behind as sacrifice! Remember to claim at least fifty heads each before you decide to die with honor!"

The horde filled into the floor below as she ended her speech. Noticing this, Koizumi, Suzumiya, and I ran to the next floor while the other three began to hold off the horde. Running up the staircase, we burst into the large room, which was full of broken and irreparable displays, panels, and even several lockers along the walls under a high ceiling. In the center of the room was a pile of bodies. Aside from those things, the floor was empty. Suzumiya couldn't help but taunt.

"Where the hell are you?! Come out! I'm here!"

…There was silence at first, but suddenly, the room rumbled as if there was a tremor.

Thanks to Suzumiya's call, a large puddle of blood began to form in the center of the room under the pile of corpses. The boss was awakening. The bodies decomposed to red mass in seconds, beginning to shift around and form a giant figure. The boss had completely emerged from the puddle of blood, made of the remains of the corpses. It was a monstrously tall blood red humanoid beast made of the organs and limbs of the corpses which it emerged from, surrounded by red electric sparks; a horrific, spectacular end-of-the-stage obstacle. Without hesitation, Suzumiya started firing first.

While she unintentionally distracted the monster, Koizumi and I flanked it from both sides. He fired sniper bullets into points on the gargantuan creature's body while I concentrated fire on its legs. The attack seemed effective from how it began to stumble. Though, it would rise back up while being rained upon by the torrent of bullets, as if immune to bullets. It charged towards Suzumiya and immediately launched her into the lockers with a sweep of its hand. Now the boss turned towards Koizumi, who through quick reaction, shot the creature in both of its eyes, making it kneel to the ground in pain.

"Suzumiya-san, search the lockers!" Koizumi ordered.

She slowly got up from the ground, shaking off the pain as she opened the locker she was thrown into.

"Perfect!"

Reaching into the locker, she pulled out what seemed to be a rocket launcher. I remembered that it was the weapon required to damage the boss, a typical, yet reasonable element in most zombie-themed video games. Taking no time to think, Suzumiya immediately fired upon the bloody giant, which had half of its body torn off in a great explosion. The creature fell to the ground in a splatter of blood and fell apart into a pile of limbs and organs.

"Now we must ascend to the third floor before the others are completely overwhelmed," Koizumi suggested.

The three of us climbed a final set of stairs, reaching the control room full of panels. We had to get one of these working, and then use it to return power to the plant and the rest of the city. Koizumi held the tools that we received from the apartment. He ran to the largest panel in the back and began doing what he could with the machinery.

"I'll head back while you two handle yourselves!"

Suzumiya ran back to the first floor with her rocket launcher, planning to help the others. I walked over to Koizumi while he worked on repairing the panel.

"Ramura-san, when I'm finished with repairs, you have to choose one of two switches. One of them restarts the turbines below and several other electrical units in the building, generating power. The other, however…"

"…Does an override and makes the panel inaccessible for a while, screwing the power up all over again, making us have to face the endless horde…"

"We still have limited ammunition, so we can't survive for very long… Okay, I'm done. Please choose."

The labels that apparently used to mark the inconveniently identical switches to help differentiate between them were either faded or scratched off. While I was taking time deciding, another interruption occurred. Kyon, Nagato Yuki, Asahina Mikuru, and Suzumiya Haruhi suddenly burst through the door.

"Hah…They're…hah…still coming," Kyon said with what little breath he had left.

I had to ignore the immediate "that's what she said" opportunity and choose now. I slowly began to reach for a switch. I hesitated though, still not sure of which one was the right one.

"Hurry the hell up and find the right one, damn you!"

Remembering that she was armed with a rocket, I chose the switch on the right and began to use it.

"Wait!"

"Augh, what now, Mikuru-chan?!"

Asahina ignored Suzumiya's gripes, ran up to me and grabbed my arm, guiding it to the other switch. I pressed it. The sounds of the horde neared closer as we were held in three seconds of suspense.

…

The lights on the panels suddenly lit up; followed by the sounds of machines whirring below. The building was suddenly engulfed in an immense bright light, bringing about the pained screams of the zombie horde which pierced everyone's ears.

…

Soon, the noise died out. We actually did it. We survived. Suzumiya began to cheer incessantly, dropping the rocket launcher on the floor and grabbing Asahina and Kyon in her arms.

"We beat it!"

…

This was when I suddenly felt something strike the back of my neck. I became limp, and fell to the ground unconscious.

"Gah!"

I was shocked awake in my own bed. Looking around my room, everything was completely normal. It was morning, the sun shone through the window, my door was still intact, and my clock alarm had just begun to ring. I grabbed my TV remote and checked the news. There was nothing peculiar being reported at all. It was as if it was a dream.

No. I already knew that wasn't a dream. It was completely real, even the hit that my neck took which knocked me out. I was grabbing the back of my neck in pain.

…

But still… what the hell had happened?


End file.
